Secret Cave

Secret Cave
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Nocturne
Illustrator(s)	Ryan Laukat
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action You may discard 3 cards. If you did, then at the start of your next turn, +. Heirloom: Magic Lamp

Secret Cave is an Action-Duration card from Nocturne. It's a discard for benefit cantrip that can provide you with + on your next turn if you discard 3 cards from your hand now. Games using Secret Cave include the Heirloom Magic Lamp.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you do not discard three cards, Secret Cave is discarded from play at end of turn.
• If you do discard three cards, Secret Cave stays out until the Cleanup of your next turn, and you get + at the start of that turn.
• You can choose to discard three cards even with fewer cards in hand, and will discard your remaining cards, but will not get the bonus.
• In games using Secret Cave, replace one of your starting Coppers with a Magic Lamp.

Strategy

Secret Cave is a Duration cantrip that lets you discard three cards in exchange for on your next turn. While this can enable you to spike higher pricepoints, especially during the early stages of the game (e.g. for Inheritance), or generate when you have overdraw or draw-to-X cards such as Cursed Village, Secret Cave is usually not an efficient source of economy. Benefits now are generally better than benefits later, and having to wait a turn to get the is usually detrimental. Additionally, because you discard three cards for , Secret Cave effectively pushes you towards a money density of per stop card, an unimpressive mark. Rather, Secret Cave’s primary function in many Kingdoms is to make it easier to activate its Heirloom, Magic Lamp.

Magic Lamp offers a one-shot effect of gaining three Wishes if you can assemble six unique cards in play. This is almost always an important goal in the early game because Wish is a very powerful gainer and enabler of gain-and-play. To achieve this objective, you must usually build towards two things: at least six unique cards in deck, and just enough deck control to get all six of those (including Magic Lamp) into play at the same time, without playing multiple copies of any of them. Because you start with Coppers and a Magic Lamp, you usually need to acquire four more playable uniques. This generally means adding a few different Action cards (having some nonterminals makes them easier to put into play on the same turn) and avoiding duplicate purchases at first; Treasures can also be helpful (e.g. Silver or Supplies). Secret Cave itself is a cantrip that helps you achieve six unique cards, and as a Duration card, it provides two opportunities per play to contribute to the number of uniques in play. This is only the case if you make use of its discarding effect (it won’t stay in play until your next turn otherwise), so it’s sometimes worth discarding solely for the purpose of helping to activate Magic Lamp on your next turn; you’ll usually want to make this decision based on deck tracking. In addition to acquiring more unique cards, thinning greatly helps with Magic Lamp activation, in that it can remove Estates that you cannot put into play and excess Coppers which don’t contribute to your count of unique cards, as well as allowing you to draw your unique cards more easily. Good draw is also often important, as it lets you assemble more cards in your hand to find six distinct ones. Necropolis (in games with Shelters) and other Heirlooms mean you occasionally start with more unique cards than usual, accelerating the process of activating Magic Lamp.

An important synergy is with Treasurer, with which you can regain Magic Lamp from the trash for more opportunities to reactivate its benefit.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action You may discard 3 cards. If you did, then at the start of your next turn, +.   Heirloom: Magic Lamp	Nocturne	November 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Geheime grot
French	Grotte secrète			+1 Carte +1 Action Vous pouvez défausser 3 cartes. Dans ce cas, au début de votre prochain tour, +.   Patrimoine : Lampe magique
German	Geheime Höhle			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Du darfst 3 Handkarten ablegen. Wenn du das tust, zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +.   Erbstück: Wunderlampe	(2017)
Japanese	秘密の洞窟 (pron. himitsu no dōkutsu)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション 手札3枚を捨て札にしてもよい。捨て札にした場合、あなたの次のターンの開始時に、+   (家宝: 魔法のランプ)
Russian	Тайный Грот (pron. tayny grot)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Secret Cave came from testing cards out for the Sauna / Avanto promo. You're doing less this turn because you're in the Sauna; that was the angle. We liked it and I put it in the file when something else became Sauna. Here it is in Nocturne. As a Sauna it said "if you don't buy anything this turn," and I changed it to discarding 3 cards.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Nocturne

Donald X.'s opinion

Well I don't know what exactly the ranking sums up, what it says about say how often you get a card, but I almost always get this. The thing is it's always in a game with Magic Lamp. Odds are I want to pop that Lamp, I mean there are exceptions but they are rare. And Secret Cave is a 6th card on two turns. So, I get it. And then later, it may just cycle a lot, but sometimes you'll do it. Sometimes there's a combo, like Cursed Village.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, $3 Cost Card Rankings Bottom Half